Fort Devens Sudbury Training Annex

Soil Removal

Arsenic Removal Area (P-27) During Soil Excavation

Cleanup Completed

P-27 Area After Restoration

When EPA talks about reuse of Superfund sites, people often think
of commercial or industrial developments. However, in Massachusetts,
a unique type of reuse success story is being told, where the Army's
former Sudbury Annex has now become a wildlife refuge.

Fort Devens Sudbury Annex - a former military installation located
on 2750 acres of land in portions of Maynard, Stow, Hudson, and
Sudbury - was established in 1942. It had been used as an ammunition
depot, an ordinance test station, a troop training and research
area, and a laboratory disposal area. Aside from Army structures
and cleared areas, the Annex is mostly undeveloped, with a patchwork
of forests and wetlands.

In 1980, the Army began investigations to address potentially contaminated
areas. These included a landfill, a former fire training and flame
retardant clothing test area, underground storage tanks, a rail
yard maintenance area, a pesticide storage area, an ammunition demolition
area, and miscellaneous disposal areas. The studies determined that
portions of the Annex groundwater contained volatile organic compounds
(VOCs), pesticides, and metals at levels above drinking water standards;
other areas contained contaminated soil. Due to the contamination,
the Sudbury Annex was added to EPA's National Priorities List in
1990. Cleanup activities conducted between 1985 and 2000 resulted
in the removal of over 15,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil,
removal of over 300 tanks and drums, the capping of the Old Gravel
Pit landfill (covering approximately 2 acres), and continued monitoring
of contaminated groundwater. The Army conducted this cleanup work
under the supervision, and cooperation, of EPA, the Massachusetts
Department of Environmental Protection, as well as a group of concerned
citizens who formed a Technical Review Committee. In late 2000,
the various agencies and groups joined together to celebrate the
completion of all cleanup construction at the site, and to celebrate
its future promise. The Army has turned the property over to the
US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Sudbury Annex has now become
the Assabet River Wildlife Refuge, part of the Great Meadows National
Wildlife Refuge.